COPENHAGEN, DENMARK – Britain’s Mark Cavendish won the World Championship road race, 25 September following a mass sprint. He became the first Briton to win the title since Tommy Simpson in 1965. Cavendish confirmed his position as the finest sprinter of his generation with a well-timed drive for the line after he was guided to the finish by his team-mates. Australian Matthew Goss was second with German rider André Greipel third. Swiss star Fabian Cancellara came in fourth.
International sports, Tour de France cycling
Epernay, France (GenevaLunch) – Mark Cavendish, the sprinter from the Isle of Man, dominated the 2009 finishes but has had a difficult start to this year’s Tour de France, including being responsable for one of the big crashes that have marred the race. He put that behind him to win the sprint coming into Eparneyat the end of the fifth stage of the race, 8 July.
Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara still has a 23 second lead over Welsh rider Geraint Thomas with Australian Cadel Evans third. 2009 winner Alberto Cantador is 1′ 40″ off the pace in ninth place while Lance Armstrong is 2′ 30″ behind. Cancellara is likely to retain the lead in the sixth stage but may not keep it when the mountain stages arrive.
International sports: Tour de France cycling
Reims, France (GenevaLunch.com) - Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi won the fourth stage of the 2010 Tour de France, from Cambrai to Reims. The British rider Mark Cavendish, who dominated the sprints in 2009, could only come in 12th after a weak finish.
Swiss World and Olympic champion Fabian Cancellara keeps the yellow jersey for the overall leader, 23 seconds ahead of British rider Geraint Thomas.
International sports, Tour de France cycling
Brussels, Belgium (GenevaLunch) - Fabian Cancellara kept the leader’s yellow jersey at the end of the first full day’s racing of the 2010 Tour de France. The Swiss world and Olympic champion finished with the pack in a chaotic finish that featured a number of crashes. Because these took place in the final three kilometres the riders keep their times at the time the crashes occur. Italian Alessandro Petacchi won the sprint but Cancellara still has an overall 10-second lead from German rider Thomas Martin and Briton David Millar.
Earlier in the race a golden retriever had caused a pile-up which left a number of riders injured. Several complained about the dangerous conditions caused mainly by the large crowds and narrow roads.
Links to other sites: Tour de France, New York Times
Video, Danish TV2
International sports, Tour de France cycling
Rotterdam, Netherlands (GenevaLunch) - Fabian Cancellara took exactly 10 minutes to gain the first yellow jersey of the 2010 Tour de France when he won the prologue by 10 seconds from German rider Tony Martin. For the Swiss rider, currently world time trial and Olympic road race champion, it was his third Tour prologue victory in the last six years. David Millar was third, with Lance Armstrong a credible fourth, 22 seconds behind the leader.
Alberto Cantador, who won the 2009 Tour, finished 27 seconds back in sixth place. Bradley Wiggins, of the newly formed Team Sky, rode in the rain and finished 56 seconds back in a disappointing 77th place.
Sunday’s race goes from Rotterdam to Brussels, a distance of 223.5 km. The 8th stage passes close by Geneva to finish in Morzine-Avoriaz, Sunday 11 July.
Armstrong will meet Cancellara in Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Lance Armstrong will be back in the Tour de Suisse cycling race for the first time since he won it in 2001.
The race promises to be a colourful one, with Armstrong, who won the Tour de France seven times, gearing up for the big French race after crashing out of the Tour of California in May. His crash there came just hours after former teammate Floyd Landis, who recently admitted to doping, said that Armstrong knew about and participated in the doping – charges Armstrong and several others in the cycling world strongly deny. Landis has said that Armstrong’s doping took place in 2001, when he won the Tour de Suisse race.
But the Tour de Suisse focus will more likely be on Swiss racer Fabian Cancellara, Olympic champion who promises to give a fight in the big French race. The Tour de Suisse serves as a warmup to the Tour de France for many racers.
A disappointment for the organizers of the race is that for the first time in years it will not be carried live by Swiss television stations TSR and RSI. The race dates conflict with the football World Cup, which gets television precedence. The Tour de Suisse will have to be content with an hour of daily highlights from the race, which starts 12 June in Lugano and ends 20 June in Liestal, near the German border.
Links to other sites: Tour de Suisse (Fre) preview, circuit and dates in Switzerland, Telegraph, Le Nouvelliste
Roubaix, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France (GenevaLunch) - Fabian Cancellara, the Swiss Olympic road race champion won the famed Paris-Roubaix race, 259 kilometres with more than 50 over cobblestones Sunday 11 April. Cancellaro opened up a lead of more than two minutes when there were still 40km to go and easily maintained his lead as the pack fell away. The win followed his victory in the Tour of Flanders the previous weekend and makes him the tenth, and only the second non-Belgian to win the two spring classics. Fellow Swiss Henri Suter was the first.
His big rival Tom Boonen could not keep up with the pace and ended fifth. Norwegian Thor Hushovd was second and the Spanish rider Juan Antonio Flecha came in third.
Links to other sites: Eurosport, Fabian Cancellara, MSNBC, TSR
Ninove, Belgium (GenevaLunch) - Fabian Cancellara, the Swiss Olympic road race champion, won the Tour of Flanders to become only the 11th rider to win the three spring classics. He won Milan-San Remo in 2008 and Paris-Roubaix in 2006. Belgian riders Tom Boonen and Philippe Gilbert were next in this year’s race. Lance Armstrong was back in 27th place.
Link to other site: eurosport
Annecy, France (GenevaLunch) - Alberto Cantador, who was already in the Yellow Jersey, underlined his dominance by winning the individual time trial around Lake Annecy, not far from Geneva. His Astana teammate Lance Armstrong could only manage 16th position, losing one minute 30 seconds. Cantador now heads the Tour by four minutes 11 seconds from Andy Schleck followed by Armstrong with Bradley Wiggins another 11 seconds back in fourth.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss Olympic Champion Fabian Cancellara won the Tour de Suisse, coming in first in the final day time trial in Bern. Cancellara won gold in the time trial and bronze in the road race in the Beijing Olympics. He is not considered likely to win the Tour de France, which starts 4 July but could well take the yellow jersey in the first stage time trial in Monte Carlo. Details, swissinfo
Staefa, Switzerland (TSR, Fre) – Bernese cyclist Fabian Cancellara had to give up his first place position to Slovene Tadej Valjavec in the fourth stage of the Tour de Suisse cycling race 16 June. The 196km stage from Biasca, Ticino to Staefa, canton Zurich, was won by Cancellara’s Saxo Bank teammate Matti Breschel, but the best time overall so far in the race went to Vlajavec, 20 seconds ahead of Cancellara. Wednesday 17 June takes the race 201 km to Serfaus in the Austrian alps, over the 1,793m high Arlberg pass.
Davos, Graubuenden, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swiss Olympic gold medallist Fabian Cancellara won on Saturday and finished a few seconds behind Austrian Bernard Eisel on Sunday to retain a 22-second lead after two days of the Tour de Suisse, which started in eastern Switzerland and moves west during the week. Details, Swissinfo
